Israeli Forces Attack in Gaza, Killing 7 Arabs

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Published: September 10, 2004

Israeli forces continued a major operation in Gaza on Thursday with tanks and armored vehicles to suppress rocket fire into Israel, and in the process killed seven Palestinians. Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank.

Israeli officials again warned that they were considering exiling the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, who is already confined to his headquarters in Ramallah, in the West Bank. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom echoed warnings last week by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, saying, ''The day of Arafat's expulsion is closer than ever.'' Mr. Shalom was speaking to Likud Party members.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved a new route for the barrier Israel is building to deter suicide bombers, a route much closer to the Green Line, the armistice line of 1949. The new route does include large Israeli settlements in the West Bank, like Ariel, Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion. But Mr. Sharon appeared to be responding to rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court and some pressure from Washington.

His chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, is in Washington for meetings with American officials about Israel's settlement policies and plans for disengagement from Gaza. A group of 185 Israelis published a petition in a religious newspaper on Thursday calling the Gaza plan a ''crime against humanity'' and urging security forces to refuse to carry it out.

In the Gaza operation, more than 30 people were wounded, hospital officials said. Among the dead was a 9-year-old boy, who was killed when a tank fired its heavy machine gun toward a group of gunmen, stone throwers and bystanders in Beit Lahia, witnesses told Reuters.

The boy, Munir el-Deqqes, was shot in the chest while playing outside his grandfather's house, the witnesses said. Two other Palestinians died in that incident.

An Israeli Army spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, emphasized that armed Palestinians had surrounded the tank.

Near the Jabalya refugee camp, Israeli helicopters fired at least two missiles, killing one gunman and wounding three others, while finding and dismantling two welding shops used to make short-range Qassam rockets, Captain Dallal said.